Nicholas Hytner: Theatre ticket prices 'a hundred times better' than football

Director and producer Nicholas Hytner has countered criticism of theatre ticket prices, arguing that the industry gives itself too much "bad press" about affordability.

The former National Theatre director, who set up the Travelex £10 tickets scheme in 2003 when he ran the building, said the cost of mounting a production must be considered when looking at ticket prices, taking aim at the "infinitely more expensive" world of football. 

"It’s really important [tickets] are cheap, but boy do we beat ourselves up, do we give ourselves bad press about this," he told an online discussion event hosted by the magazine Jewish Renaissance. 

Hytner quoted current ticket prices for Manchester United games – referencing a forthcoming match against Atlético de Madrid, where seats start at £173, as well as a Manchester City game with entry from £176. The most expensive seats for this match are on sale for £400.

"We really don’t do badly when you think of the value for money that you get when you come and see a musical with a big orchestra in the pit and a vast chorus of people. Are they supposed to live off baked beans so that every ticket can be £10?

"We spend so much time trying to balance how expensive it is to put on a show, concert or ballet with making sure that it’s affordable for people to come and see it. I think we’re a hundred times better than the marvellous world of football that politicians are so keen on telling us they enjoy so much," said Hytner, who now runs London’s Bridge Theatre.

Theatre has long faced scrutiny for rising ticket prices, particularly in the West End, where top-price seats regularly exceed £100. 

In 2019, tickets in the most expensive price bracket averaged £116 across the West End, while the average price paid for a West End show in the same year was £52. 

More recently, Cabaret at the Playhouse Theatre – starring Eddie Redmayne and Jessie Buckley – was branded "disgraceful and immoral" when tickets went on sale last year, at a top price of £325. 

The number and accessibility of lower-price theatre tickets have also come under the spotlight in recent years, with fears that the cheapest seats are often difficult to secure or are only available via last-minute deals. 

In 2019, the director Robert Icke expressed fears about subsidised ticket prices, warning that the cost of going to the theatre at publicly funded venues had "been allowed to get completely out of hand".

"When the ticket prices are such that it excludes a whole load of people who live in this city, I feel really frightened about it. Whatever you’re saying on stage, the real entry point to discussion is the price of a ticket," Icke said.